Sahelian kingdoms
Kingdoms and empires centered in the Sahel
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Through Forest
The Sahel states were limited from expanding south into the forest zone of the Bono and Yoruba as mounted warriors were all but useless in the forests and the horses and camels could not survive the diseases of the region.
Economy
There were integrated kingdoms and empires, with substantial cities and significant towns; and less organised territories with large scattered populations. People practised agriculture, stock-rearing, hunting, fishing, and crafts (metalworking, textiles, ceramics). They navigated along rivers and across lakes, traded over short and long distances, and used their own currencies.
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History of Sahel kingdoms
- The first major state to rise in this region was the Ghana Empire. Established in c. the 3rd century, it was centered in what is today Senegal and Mauritania. Ghana grew wealthy through the trans-Saharan trade routes linking Aoudaghost with Tahert and Sijilmasa in north Africa following the introduction of the camel to the western Sahel in the 3rd century AD. Ghana was the first to benefit from the introduction of pack animals by Wolof traders. Ghana dominated the region between the 3rd century and the 13th century. Smaller states in the region at this time included Takrur to the west, the Malinke kingdom of Mali to the south, and the Songhai centred on Gao to the east.
- When Ghana collapsed in the face of invasion from the Almoravids and conquest by the Sosso Empire; after 1235, the Mali Empire rose to dominate the region, which traded with Bono state at the far south. Located on the Niger River to the west of Ghana in what is today Niger and Mali, it reached its peak in the 1350s, but had lost control of a number of vassal states by 1400.
- The most powerful of these states was the Songhai Empire, which expanded rapidly beginning with king Sonni Ali in the 1460s. By 1500, it had risen to stretch from Cameroon to the Maghreb, the largest state in African history. Its territory diminished to cover only the Dendi province in 1591 as a result of the invasion by the Saadi Dynasty of Morocco. The empire collapsed in 1901 when the French deposed the last askia.
- Far to the east, on Lake Chad, the state of Kanem-Bornu, founded as Kanem in the 9th century, now rose to greater preeminence in the central Sahel region. To their west, the loosely united Hausa city-states became dominant. These two states coexisted uneasily, but were quite stable.
- In 1810, the Sokoto Caliphate rose and conquered the Hausa, creating a more centralized state. It and Kanem-Bornu would continue to exist as traditional states.